“Rather, he gently guided him out, since our car was being worked on by our
mechanics at the time, with a number of its dismantled components clearly
visible, which no-one from a rival team should see.

“Lewis knew he shouldn’t have been in our garage in the first place, just as
all team personnel know they shouldn’t enter rival teams’ garages.

“But Lewis has spent time in our paddock hospitality units at a number of
grands prix so far this season, and he’s always been warmly welcomed when
he’s visited us.”

Hamilton’s relationship with his mentor, Ron Dennis, hit a low when news that
he was jumping ship first broke.

But the 28-year-old, who initially refused to one day return to McLaren,
insists he is still on good terms with the team’s boss Martin Whitmarsh.

He added: “Martin has been great and I have to say that I haven’t had enough
contact, so I will give Martin a call.”

Meanwhile, McLaren have been struggling for speed this week in Bahrain and
Jenson Button does not expect to match his fifth-place finish he posted in
China last weekend.

And he admits that after his world championship-winning season with Brawn in
2009, and three successful years with McLaren, slugging it out in the
midfield is tough to deal with.

He said: “It is difficult. The first race was bad and to see such an
improvement in the second and third races is exciting.

“But I don’t think it is a case of getting better this weekend because I have
not got anything to get better with.

“The race in China was great. It was a fantastic effort from the team who did
a great job over the race weekend.

“We got everything out of the car and running the strategy we did during the
race was very tricky.

“Here, they have taken away the soft tyre, which is a pitty because I think
that could have helped us, but if we run the same strategy as everyone else,
it is going to be tricky to finish fifth.

“It’s very complicated but there are a lot of things we need to improve and by
changing one thing could help us in other areas.”